The modem day international market economy requires that many business concerns maintain numerous facilities that are often geographically remote. Many times a multi-national corporation, for instance, will have facilities in several different countries. In order to efficiently conduct business, communications between such geographically remote facilities must be maintained. These communications may include traditional telephony communications over traditional telephone carrier networks which have a high cost associated with them, and data communications which may be transmitted over a private, intra-company data network at a much lower cost.
Voice over internet protocol (“digital telephony”) technology has recently been developed which allows for the reliable convergence of voice and data transmission over a data network. Heretofore, however, the use of such technology by companies for intra-company phone communication has been limited due to the complexity of the methods for converging networks.
For a general summary of the general mechanics of digital telephony formatted communications over a data network, reference is made to “Voice Over Data Network; Frame Relay And ATM” by Lawrence Harte, Published by Apdg. Publishing, 1999, ISBN # 1893970027; herein incorporated by reference.
A heretofore unresolved need therefore exists for a method of providing an intra-company telephony communication over a data network service.
Further, multi-national companies have costly phone bills for long distance phone service for calls made to destinations other than intra-company facilities.
An unresolved need therefore exists for providing a method for reducing company long distance phone charges.
In addition, companies having remotely located facilities often conduct intrafacility one way, two way, or multiple participant video teleconferences to reduce travel and time expenses. Typically, signals for such video conferences are carried in an analog format over a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”). More recently, video signals for such conferences have been carried over digital networks that are typically administered and provided by third parties, who are often PSTN carriers. In either case, charges for such services from the PSTN can be significant.
A heretofore unresolved need therefore exists for providing a company with lower cost video conferencing ability.